Lesson 3: Limits of Progressivism

Lesson Focus

Progressivism brought many changes, but its benefits were limited. This lesson explores why reforms often excluded immigrants and racial minorities, reflecting traditional prejudices and revealing the movement's uneven impact on American society.

People to Know

Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois

Learning Objectives

• Understand how Progressive reformers' attitudes toward immigrants and racial minorities limited the reach of their reforms.
• Explain the shift in African American leadership from Booker T. Washington's accommodationist approach to W.E.B. Du Bois's call for full political rights.

National progressive reforms struggled because the federal government resisted change.
The conservative Senate and Supreme Court blocked key laws, such as federal workers' compensation and child labor acts. Progressives also feared powerful labor unions, offering little support.
As a result, reform was limited at the national level, and the earning power of unskilled workers actually dropped during the Progressive Era as prices rose faster than their wages.

The 'New Immigration' from southern and eastern Europe sparked alarm among progressives, who feared job competition and foreign ideas.
In response, they promoted reforms like literacy tests and compulsory education to force assimilation.
These efforts aimed to instill 'American values' and weaken immigrants' political power. Pay special attention to how these reforms often clashed with the cultural and economic needs of immigrant families, who resisted these changes.

A major limit of progressivism was its widespread racism, as most progressives believed nonwhite races were inferior.
They accepted discrimination and did not challenge the South's Jim Crow laws or the Supreme Court's 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which legalized segregation.
Consequently, progressive reforms that expanded democracy for whites did not extend to African Americans, who remained segregated and disenfranchised across the country.

The exclusion of African Americans from progressive reforms, as noted previously, led to a shift in black leadership.
Booker T. Washington argued for achieving equality through vocational training and economic progress, avoiding direct confrontation. In contrast, W.E.B. Du Bois demanded full political rights and suffrage to fight white supremacy.
This new approach led to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Influenced by American social reform movements, German Reform Jews adapted their customs and supported progressive causes.
After 1880, they aided a new wave of Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Russia.
This help was driven by a belief in social reform and a fear that the newcomers' traditional ways might provoke an anti-Jewish reaction among Christians. This created a complex dynamic between the two Jewish communities as they navigated American life.